


Growing Old

by swtalmnd



Series: Boundary Negotiations and Strange Treaties [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes & Winter Soldier are Different Personalities, Communicating Like Actual Fucking Adults, M/M, Writin' Dirty 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 07:20:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18331292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swtalmnd/pseuds/swtalmnd
Summary: Winter has a moment when he realizes Tony is going to grow old and he may not.





	Growing Old

**Author's Note:**

> For Writin' Dirty 2019, a prompt-based ficlet fest that's doing wonders for helping me get something written this month already. 
> 
> I have no idea when exactly this is in the timeline of this series, but it's definitely after everything that's currently finished & posted, so I'll move it to where it belongs when the time comes.

"What will I do when he grows old?" Winter typed almost frantically into the chat program he'd called up the moment they were safely alone. They'd been joking around with Steve and Tony, and one too many 'old man' cracks from Tony prompted Steve to start counting grey hairs and eye wrinkles, which led to an argument about who would age the most attractively. Neither of those idiots had picked up on Winter's increasing distress. "I will have so few years with him. I went so long without."

Bucky felt grief prickling at him through everything and wrote, "You will still love him and remember him. You'll still have us. It ain't the same, but it's something."

"Nothing, no one has ever been as good as he is to me," said Winter, both typing and using their voice in a pained rasp. He used chat to add, "Can't all those geniuses figure out how to make him like us?"

"That's how the Hulk got made," typed Bucky, frowning.

Despair flooded through him, a depth of feeling Bucky wasn't sure he was even capable of welling up from Winter.

Bucky pulled Winter into one of their self-soothing hugs and whispered, warm and sweet and soft, "Hey, hey, you've got him now. You've got years of him, no cryo, no lost time, no asset. Just you and Tony and me and Steve, all of us lovin' each other. Don't waste time on a future that ain't here yet."

There was a wobble of dark humor, but the despair receded, leaving a soft glow of hope in its wake. They uncurled and went back to typing. "Maybe if he has something to live for, he will find a way to keep living."

"We're both in love with reckless idiots," said Bucky, words he's not sure Tony and Winter have said but that Bucky sees and feels enough to name. "But they're in love with us, too."

"We'll keep them as safe as we can," said Winter. "I will learn to protect even better than I learned to kill."

"And you'll never, ever be alone again," said Bucky. The cursor blinked after that, but he wasn't sure there was anything else he could put that would reinforce the idea that they were in this together. That Bucky wanted it that way.

"We'll be people together," typed Winter, after a very long pause. He tugged them back into that hug, warm instead of desperate this time, flooding Bucky with a love as strong as the feelings he'd shown for Tony. Bucky sent his own right back, his gratitude and even appreciation for the person Winter was now, not just loving Tony but choosing to be a hero for him. For them.

After a long moment, Bucky typed into the chat bar teasingly, "You'll still fuck him when he's old, anyway, even if he needs a hip replacement to handle you."

Their mouth smirked, half Winter's smug pride and half Bucky's teasing affection. "Yeah, I will."


End file.
